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Toplin

By: Michael McDowell
Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
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Publisher's summary

Death in the family

"But come back soon", the sign said. Obviously it was a lie. The people in the grocery store just wanted to make sure he couldn't buy the spice he needed to make the recipe he'd selected for that night (recipes must be followed exactly). Obviously they wanted him to eat out...to meet the waitress, Marta, to see her horrible, unspeakable, unbearable ugliness. It was obvious to him: her maimed, twisted face was the living desire to be dead. He had to help Marta be dead.

His teeth are perfectly white. He can't see colors. He keeps a combination lock on his door and has twelve shelves of cookbooks. His walls bleed blood. His suits each have a number, S-1 through S-6. And life goes on.

Life goes on, if you can stand it. Life goes on, for the brave and the damned. Life goes on, but come back soon....

"An ambitious novel of psychological horror." (Publishers Weekly)

"Compelling-a tour-de-force of storytelling and style ... considerable artistry, marvelous pacing, and a welcome dose of macabre humor." (Fantasy Review)

"One of the best writers of horror in this country." (Peter Straub)

©1985, 2020 Michael McDowell (P)2020 Valancourt Books LLC
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What listeners say about Toplin

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Ummmm what

This is my third M.M. Novel and the previous two kept me hungry for more, but this book was a mistake. Please skip over it. Strangely crude & lots of sexual deviance and not for any reason relative to the novel. I kept hoping the end would give closer or explanation but it does not. 0/10 do not recommend. But if you really want to try this author Blackwater has become an all time favorite and I cannot stop thinking about it. The Amulet was also extremely well written and a great story.

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I LOVE McDowell but…..

I love Michael McDowell . I was happy to discover him earlier this year , and I have read several of his books . He is excellent. This book however , is BY FAR the worst of them . The writing is excellent , as always , but what does good writing matter when the story itself simply goes nowhere . I applaud MM for the idea - but this story did nothing for me at all . Slow, uninteresting , pointless . Please give this author a chance if you haven’t read him before , but don’t start here . Listen to ‘The Elementals’ instead , narrated by RC Bray - that book blew my mind !!

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